God help us

Today’s postbag included a package from Creeping Bent, a great label, home to fabulous people, like Alan Vega & The Revolutionary Corps of Teenage Jesus, and The Secret Goldfish.

They’ve done a bad thing, though. It’s called ‘Ghost of Yesterday.’ It’s a mini-album of Billie Holiday covers. With vocals by Isobel Campbell. I don’t know what to say. Except that, maybe, someone who can’t, in any commonly understood sense of the term, sing isn’t doing herself any favours encouraging a comparison with a lady who didn’t so much sing as rip your soul out with her voice.

To be fair, it’s a pretty good record if you don’t know the songs, thanks to some pretty stunning arrangements by Falkirk jazz legend Bill Wells and Ms. Campbell, but when you hear Holiday in your head over the top, it’s enough to make you kick your stereo across the room. Goodness, i seemed to have turned into a… purist. How vile.

Update: What do you know, Ms. Campbell just left B&S to… pursue her solo projects.

Posted at 11am on 30/05/02 by Jack Mottram to the music category.
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